...the equipment for a new VSAT Platform to be run via the Yamal-402 satellite. Contracts have been signed, making Newtec the preferred partner of choice to provide the complete VSAT system including hub, modems and antennas for the project.

Ensuring Internet access in the remote areas of Russia at an affordable price is essential. Until this year, only expensive, professional, VSAT installations in limited hot spots in the Moscow and Saint Petersburg regions were available. GSS plans to offer satellite broadband access services to local ISPs that will in turn supply services to consumers and enterprise customers within the Yamal-402 footprint, which covers the whole of Russian territory.

In 2012, Newtec started shipping its new high-speed Ka-band VSAT broadband technology. This new technology has already been selected by several customers, including Europe’s most successful satellite broadband service. While the GSS network will use Ku-band (via the Yamal-402), the terminals can be easily adapted to function with higher throughput Ka Band frequencies by a simple change of the interactive LNB and with no hardware adaptation to the modem and the antenna. The Yamal-402 satellite, located at 55 degrees East, was launched by GSS in December 2012 and is equipped with 46 Ku-band transponders, with four fixed and one steerable beam.